I hate to use postcards for photographs, but all of ours are on slides, and living on an island, it is very difficult to get anywhere to get them made into photographs.

The ensemble is set in a natural park full of ancient trees. There is the beautiful Golosov Ovrag, a ravine which contains a family of springs called Kadochka or little water bowls, and two huge stones which served as objects of Pagan worship.

There is also the linden alley, and the remarkable alley of ancient oaks, the oldest in Moscow, which are as old as 400 to 600 years of age. Specialists think one of the oaks has been around since the days of Ivan Kalita. Others were planted by Peter I when he was young.

In the summer, traditional folkore festivals are held here, and it is a favorite place for residents of the area to come for picnics and sunbathing. During the winter the children go sliding.

The first document to have mentioned the village of Kolomenskoe is dated 1339, during the reign of Ivan Kalita. It's name dates from the thirteenth century when villagers from the town of Kolomna settled there after fleeing the onslaught of the hordes led by Khan Batu.

In the fifteenth century, the property was owned by the Grand Duke of Moscow, and became the royal summer residence.

The earliest building to survive today, is the Church of the Ascension. It was built in 1532 by the Moscow Grand Prince Vasili III in order to give thanks at the birth of his son and heir to the throne, Ivan, who later became Ivan IV, or the terrible.

The church represents a new stage in Russian architecture. It is the first tent-roofed church to be built in stone. It also doesn't follow the traditional cruciform domed style.

The remarkable tent-roof, which is topped with a small cupola, rises from an octagonal base crowned by small kokoshniki. This base also rises from a larger base formed by a series of tiered kokoshniki. The whole tower is decorated with white-stone ribbing, columns, and a simple diamond pattern on the tent-roof. When it was built, it was the tallest structure in Moscow at the height of 62 meters.

The base of the church is surrounded by galleries reached by steps at various levels. Because of the construction, the thickness of the walls had to be 2.5 to 3 meters thick, making the interior very small. Even though it is small, there is a feeling of spaciousness because of it's height of 41 meters.

In 1994 UNESCO designated the Church of the Ascension among it's list of historical and cultural monuments.

After Vasili III's death, Ivan IV carried on the tradition of building at Kolomenskoe, which also served as one of his residences. He was responsible for the building of the Church of John the Baptist, his patron Saint in the nearby ancient village of Dyakovo. The exact date of the building of the church is unknown. Some studies connect the laying of the foundation with Ivan's coronation in 1547, while connect it with the birth of his son, Tsarevich Ivan, in 1554. The Church of John the Baptist consists of an octagonal central core with a height of 34.5 meters, surrounded by five chapels, one a picturesque tower with a height of 17 meters. The church has a bell of the Pskov type, and has many of the traits of Russian architecture of the sixteenth century in the wealth and elegance of it's decorative detail.

During restoration work, some of the first painting was uncovered in the cupola, which resembled the painting in the cupola of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square.

Another structure which was built in the middle of the sixteenth century is the St. George Belltower. The exact time it was built is unknown. I have never seen any references as to whether it was built by Vasili III or Ivan IV, but Vasili died in 1533. The two-story cylindrical structure originally carried out the function as the bell tower for the Church of the Ascention, and was built on the site of the Church of St. George which had existed at the time of Dmitry Donskoy (second half of the fourteenth century.

In the seventeenth century a wooden refectory was built on the western side, this was rebuilt from stone by the architect E. D. Turin in 1843. In the end of the 1920s I. D. Baranovskii endeavored to restore the belltower to it's original looks. Today the belltower is a single round two-story tower with a small drum on top. Both stories have five large arches, each with a smaller arch above it. The upper story's larger arhes are open. On top of this story, is a series of smaller arches looking like a crown around the domed roof atop which sits the small drum.

In memory of the liberation of Moscow from the Polish usurpation Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich ordered a stone five-domed church to be built and named for the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The exact date of the building of the church is not known, but it was probably built between 1644 and the 1670s. The Church was dedicated during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

The domes of the church, whose architecture is typical of the seventeenth century, are blue with gold stars. It was the domestic church of the Tsars and was connected at a later date with a huge wooden palace, (which we will read about later), by a covered crossway on the level of the second story.

The Icon of Kazan miraculously appeared in Kolomenskoe on the second of March 1917, on the day of the abdication of the throne of the emperor Nikolai II, and she is now housed in a side chapel of the church.

Services were stopped there until 1941-1942, but have resumed.

In 1666 or 1667, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered the construction of a fantastic wooden summer palace at Kolomenskoe, which was dubbed the eighth wonder of the world. It was built on the site of much earlier buildings using neither saws, nor nails, but only axes, and was considered a marvel of Russian carpentry. The palace contained about 250 rooms, and 3000 mica windows. It looked like a real fairytale palace, pavillions with connecting stairways and passages, and lots of lacy carved wooden ornamentation. It had many different roof types, bulbous domes, and tent-roofed towers, with multicolored tiles, and gilding. Each member of the family had it's own quarters.

Although Peter I spent time during his childhood here, Moscow had unhappy memories for him, and after he moved the capital to Petersburg, The palace fell into a state of disrepair. By the time of Catherine II, it was considered unsafe, and she had it torn down. Archelogists from N. A. Krenke's group discovered the basement of the palace. In 1868, a 1:40 scale model of the palace, which can be seen at the museum, was made from sketches.

Sytny Dvor was the place where provisions were stored, and the meals for the Tsar's families were prepared. It was built in the second half of the seventeenth century and at first appeared to be a single-storied building, with the second story added in the eighteenth century. This building now houses exhibitions of Icons and decorative stove tiles, among other exhibits.

The Front Gate served as the entrance to the Tsar's Palace during the seventeenth century. Erected in 1672-1673 the stone gates replaced more ancient oaken ones. The gates consist of four stories with a tent-roofed bell tower on top. The lower story is divided into two arches, the wider for horse traffic, the narrower for foot travelers. Over the arches was a chamber with special mechanisms which were found in the seventeenth century. They were joined beneath the gates with sculptures of lions which greeted guests by turning their eyes, lifting a paw, and emmitting a roar.

Above was a chamber with a clock mechanism and dial with numbers. The original mechanism was not preserved, and today in it's place is another which was removed from the Sukharev Tower, which was destroyed during Stalin's time. This clock dates from the nineteenth century.

Not far from the Church of the Ascension, separate from the other monuments stands the Water Tower. Probably it was built during the 1670s. The exact date is unknown. But legend says that Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich kepts his hunting falcons here, therefore, the tower had a second name, the Falcon Tower. In 1675 a water pumping mechanism was placed in the tower to provide water for the palace.

The tower is divided into three sections. The central part contains a wide arch, and at about 18 meters is more than twice as high as the two side sections, which are equal in height. The upper part of the structure is finished with a barrel shaped roof which comes to a point at the top.

A narrow whitestone well with water is situated under the eastern shoulder of the building. There are two ceramic pipes coming out of it. The water pumping mechanism is not preserved.

The Savior Gates, like the Front Gates, have two arches. They were built in the 1670s, and served as the household entrance into the palace. Until 1917, over the gates, in an image case, stood the icon of the Savior, after which they received their name.

In the beginning, the roof of the gates had several kokoshniki, one over each arch, and one over each narrow end. When this old roof became decayed, it was replaced with a simpler roof. In 1977 restoration returned the Savior Gates to their former appearance.

There is a great deal more to come on the history of Kolomenskoe. I am still translating all of the information I have. I am writing more about the Water Tower, as well as about the numerous other buildings, past and present which are located on this remarkable site. In the meantime, you can learn more and see more pictures by going to the official site of the museum.

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